apache22 web root directive

[Matthew Seaman]

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Eric wrote:

> close, but I am not running in a non standard DocumentRoot as far as I
> know. its set to apache22's /usr/local/www/apache22/data, which is the
> default, but if you look at the mailgraph Makefile, it uses
> /usr/local/www/data for the install.
> 
> the more i look at it, the more it seems like its a mailgraph issue.
> 
> i guess I am curious of the apache20 default of /usr/local/www/data was
> around so long its just what everyone assumes, but from what I can tell,
> thats not the recommended practice. isnt it better to install to
> /usr/local/www/mailgraph and then alias things?

Web-based applications will generally install into a subdirectory of
/usr/local/www independent of what web server you use.  There are
some exceptions -- eg. cacti installs into /usr/local/share/cacti

This means that you will have to make provision in your httpd.conf
(or whatever the equivalent is for the webserver you're using) so
that the filesystem space the application lives in is mapped into
the URL-space provided by your webserver.  In apache, that typically
means setting up an alias and then applying appropriate access
controls in a <Location> or <Directory> block.

Formerly many web applications installed into the apache specific
directory /usr/local/www/data but this behaviour is now discouraged.
It's not, AFAIK, absolutely forbidden, but you'ld have a hard time
getting a new port through committal if it behaved like that. I
don't think there has been a concerted effort to find all of the
older ports that install under /usr/local/www/data and modify them;
rather individual maintainers are expected to modify their ports as
the occasion arises.

	Cheers,

	Matthew

- --
Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil.                   7 Priory Courtyard
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PGP: http://www.infracaninophile.co.uk/pgpkey     Ramsgate
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